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- Thread starter Carrie42
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Hello and welcome. First of many questions - what is kitty's name?
It's good to hear that you are home testing his BG. What brand of meter are you using?
How long has he been on insulin? You say recently diagnosed. 2.5 units is rather higher than we'd do as a starting dose.
What type of food are you feeding? An all wet or raw low carb food is best for diabetics. Changing food can make a lot of difference in the amount of insulin used.
Sorry for all the questions, but we need more background in order to be able to help you better. Some of the above answers should go in your signature, as people will ask those questions. See details on the signature and more in this post:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
It's good to hear that you are home testing his BG. What brand of meter are you using?
How long has he been on insulin? You say recently diagnosed. 2.5 units is rather higher than we'd do as a starting dose.
What type of food are you feeding? An all wet or raw low carb food is best for diabetics. Changing food can make a lot of difference in the amount of insulin used.
Sorry for all the questions, but we need more background in order to be able to help you better. Some of the above answers should go in your signature, as people will ask those questions. See details on the signature and more in this post:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
Last edited:
Hello,
Kitty's name is Rocket. I am using the Relion Premier Classic human meter.
He has been on insulin about 3 weeks now. He ended up at the emergency vet because he was having rapid breathing and was generally just not acting like himself ( on a weekend and my regular vets office was closed ). He was diagnosed with DKA. He stayed at emergency vet overnight until I picked him up and took him to my regular vet. They got him stable after a couple of days. My vet actually took him home with him to monitor Rocket while they were treating him. When I picked up Rocket after 3 days. The starting dose of Vetsulin was one unit twice a day. I did that for about 2 weeks. Spoke with my vet after 2 weeks and could not get Rockets numbers stable so the vet had me do a glucose curve every 2 hours based on that info he had me up the dose to 2.5 units twice a day. I've been doing that for a little over a week and his numbers still aren't stable.
The vet prescribed Purina OM Wet food for Rocket. He has been eating that for 3 weeks now. As of yesterday, I took him off the Purina RX food and started feeding him fancy feast classic pates per some of the research I've done on this website.
I'll take a look at the signature link you sent me.
Thanks so much for the help.
Carrie
Welcome to FDMB.
One of the complications is that the OM is high in carbohydrates. The Savory Select flavor is 17% carb and the regular OM is 21% carb. We consider low carb as under 10% and most of the folks here feed their cat a food that's in the neighborhood of 5% carb. This chart contains information about most of the canned foods available in the US along with the nutritional values including carbs. If the amount of carbs is high, you will need larger doses of insulin to offset the impact of the food on blood glucose levels.
If you switch foods, please do so slowly. Changing over to a low carb food can drop the blood glucose levels and you will likely need to reduce your cat's insulin dose to prevent hypoglycemia.
Also, please get Ketostix at any pharmacy. Given Rocket was diagnosed with ketones, you want to be sure that they are not developing again. Testing for ketones (and home testing for glucose levels) is the best way to keep Rocket safe.
Another consideration is that Vetsulin is not an insulin that is recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn for the treatment of feline diabetes. They recommend either Prozinc or Lantus (glargine). Vetsulin does not last for 12 hours. So you may see a drop in numbers during the earlier part of the cycle but the numbers will be high at pre-shot times. Both Lantus and Prozinc have a longer duration. You also do not need to wait after feeding your cat in order to give an injection. With Vetsulin, it's important to have food on board because it's a harsh insulin that can drop numbers fast. This is our guide for Vetsulin. You may find it helpful however, I'd encourage you to talk to your vet about a different choice of insulin.
One of the complications is that the OM is high in carbohydrates. The Savory Select flavor is 17% carb and the regular OM is 21% carb. We consider low carb as under 10% and most of the folks here feed their cat a food that's in the neighborhood of 5% carb. This chart contains information about most of the canned foods available in the US along with the nutritional values including carbs. If the amount of carbs is high, you will need larger doses of insulin to offset the impact of the food on blood glucose levels.
If you switch foods, please do so slowly. Changing over to a low carb food can drop the blood glucose levels and you will likely need to reduce your cat's insulin dose to prevent hypoglycemia.
Also, please get Ketostix at any pharmacy. Given Rocket was diagnosed with ketones, you want to be sure that they are not developing again. Testing for ketones (and home testing for glucose levels) is the best way to keep Rocket safe.
Another consideration is that Vetsulin is not an insulin that is recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn for the treatment of feline diabetes. They recommend either Prozinc or Lantus (glargine). Vetsulin does not last for 12 hours. So you may see a drop in numbers during the earlier part of the cycle but the numbers will be high at pre-shot times. Both Lantus and Prozinc have a longer duration. You also do not need to wait after feeding your cat in order to give an injection. With Vetsulin, it's important to have food on board because it's a harsh insulin that can drop numbers fast. This is our guide for Vetsulin. You may find it helpful however, I'd encourage you to talk to your vet about a different choice of insulin.